Zur bergenden Burg. Da gebot er dem Volke
Schlossreich und schatzreich. Wie geschworen, so hielt
Sein Versprechen dir redlich der Sprössling des Bonstein.’
Criticism of the Translation.
Von Wolzogen’s translation is hardly trustworthy. A specimen of his free interpretation of the Beowulf diction may be seen in the footnote on page 13, where he defines horngēap (i.e. ‘with wide intervals between its pinnacles of horn’) as ‘hornreich,’ and translates hornreced, ‘Hornburg.’ Inaccurate renderings of the Old English have been noted above in italics. They reveal an especial difficulty with the kenning, a device which von Wolzogen apparently did not understand, since the entire translation shows an attempt to interpret the kenning hypotactically. Had the translator been making a paraphrase, inaccuracies like ‘muthige Meerfahrt’ and ‘ihr rangt mit dem Wasser’ might be excused; but in a translation which was avowedly literal (more literal than Heyne’s) they appear to be due to nothing less than ignorance and carelessness. To give one example from the thousand that bear out the truth of this statement, we may cite line 561 (p. 27),
Ic him þēnode
deoran sweorde swā hit gedēfe wæs.
which is translated,
dawider doch diente
Mein treffliches Schwert, das treu mir beistand. (p. 27.)